Fox should apologize

PERHAPS SOMEONE should remind Mexican President Vicente Fox that when he talks, the world listens.

Obviously, the frustrated politician forgot that little part of his job description when he mouthed off to a group of Texas businesspeople meeting in Mexico on Friday.

Incensed by the latest U.S. immigration reforms, including plans to extend a fence between California and Mexico, Fox told the group:

"There is no doubt that Mexicans, filled with dignity, willingness and ability to work, are doing jobs that not even blacks want to do there in the United States."

No doubt, Fox is under a lot of pressure and has reason to be upset.

Promises of easing immigration policies between the two countries by way of Bush's proposed guest-worker program have been sitting in Congress since last year.

In a serious backpedaling effort, Luis Derbez, Mexico's foreign relations secretary, insisted that Fox's comments were not meant to be racist, but rather to highlight that "Mexican migrants are making great contributions in the United States and that their role is a positive role."

But there is a thing called "diplomacy" -- and using a negative stereotype aimed at one race to promote the "positive role" of your own is not an example of that. Also, the reality is that the hiring of illegal immigrants is not just about work ethic; it's about the ability of employers to exploit people whose tenuous status leaves them without the leverage to demand market wages and decent working conditions.